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  1. chthonic love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Greek Mythology Of or relating to the underworld.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Of or pertaining to the under world.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Dwelling within or under the earth.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Pertaining to the earth; earthy.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. dwelling beneath the surface of the earth

Etymologies

  1. From Ancient Greek χθών (khthōn, "ground"). (Wiktionary)
  2. From Greek khthonios, of the earth, from khthōn, earth; see dhghem- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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  • Louises 'The question of the chthonic spirit has occupied me ever since I began to delve into the world of alchemy’. Jung qoted in The Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson 2010. Apr 20, 2013

  • xvmike "There are traces of the old Christianity at Lakewood Church—or perhaps I should say traces of religion in general—lingering like the echoes of archaic chthonic cults that could still be found in classical Greek mythology and ritual." (Ehrenreich 2009) Apr 19, 2012

  • nuxiy "The chthonic power - namely, the Earth - lived in her while Heaven lived in man"
    - Julius Evola in "The Revolt against the Modern World" Mar 23, 2009

  • smeggo Pretty underground still, apparently. Oct 11, 2008

  • dithyramble See also autochthonous, heterochthonous. Aug 8, 2008

  • yarb It's been ages since I read that splendid novel, must do so again. Jul 24, 2008

  • sionnach It doesn't seem particularly sensible to apply these readability indices to an individual sentence. Each involves an *average* sentence length, suggesting a lack of validity when the calculation is based on only one sentence. Jul 24, 2008

  • johnmperry actually brtom your citation doesn't say anything about up.

    The second sentence of your quotation contains 70 words, giving it readability index scores of Flesch Reading Ease = 50.4, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 12.0 Jul 24, 2008

  • brtom I like the way Ralph Ellison in Invislbe Man adapts this word as the name of the building in which the narrator is introduced to The Brotherhood:

    We stopped before an expensive-looking building in a strange part of the city. I could see the word Chthonian on the storm awning stretched above the walk as I got out with the others and went swiftly toward a lobby lighted by dim bulbs set behind frosted glass, going past the uniformed doorman with an uncanny sense of familiarity; feeling now, as we entered a sound-proof elevator and shot away at a mile a minute, that I had been through it all before.

    Ellison, Invisible Man, 14

    Funny how a mythical allusion works the mind, transforming the subsequent details into something altogether new - making an up-to-now hidden world out of details from the ordinary world. The character is being ushered into an "underground" by going up in an elevator. Jan 7, 2007

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‘chthonic’ has been looked up 4879 times, loved by 27 people, added to 145 lists, commented on 9 times, and has a Scrabble score of 18.